Komag on 28/12/2005 at 22:49
You can get many of these cards in PCI version, but they're hard to find, and not nearly as good anyway (PCI severly limits the bandwidth or something like that, so you'll get poor performance). You just have a lamo computer, sorry man.
But getting a PCI card would be better than nothing, definitely, and it would still play Thief 3, just not as well as if you had a nice fast AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) slot
voodoo47 on 31/12/2005 at 00:01
a pci card wont cut the deal for thief3.get a guy that understands computers (brother,friend,whatever),and let him change your motherboard (shouldnt be too expensive).once you have a decent mb with an agp slot,you can use the r9800,and you are fixed for good.
Biohazard on 31/12/2005 at 00:20
If you are limited by a budget and can't upgrade the entire system, then it is very important you upgrade from the integrated graphics card! I'd recommend an NVidia card for a PCI slot. Unless you just really prefer ATI (I own a Radeon 9800 128MB card and a GeForce 7800 GTX, both have their own perks), I would go to something like this:
(
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143032) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143032
Quote:
Cons: Card doesn't actually look like it does in the picture, the heatsink/fan is more of a square shape then a circle. Also, I had a bit of trouble fitting this card into my emachines desktop because of th... More »
e slightly odd position of the heatsink. But that may just be due to my Emachines having poor placement of cables. But in the end it was no problem.
That might change your mind about the card, but check out Newegg for PCI cards. Good prices and great service. Also, if you are using an Emachine it is possible to game on it (I've done it), but in my case it was the processor that bottlenecked my system. Avoid Celerons at all costs!
voodoo47 on 31/12/2005 at 09:50
that card will allow you to launch thief3,but the game will probably be pain.but if you cant change the motherboard,this is probably the best you can get..
stewpot on 31/12/2005 at 11:57
deff. not worth spending a lot on any AGP card. AGP support is in pretty heavy decline nowadays
Kaleid on 31/12/2005 at 12:19
Just echoing that there's no reason to get the 256MB version. The 9800 Pro is too slow to have any real advantage of the extra memory.
OrbWeaver on 31/12/2005 at 13:45
Quote Posted by stewpot
deff. not worth spending a lot on any AGP card. AGP support is in pretty heavy decline nowadays
If he hasn't got an AGP motherboard it is a moot point. For someone who does have an AGP motherboard, there is very little point in buying anything
other than an AGP card (unless you are going to upgrade your entire machine just to get a PCI-E graphics card).
Quote Posted by Kaleid
Just echoing that there's no reason to get the 256MB version. The 9800 Pro is too slow to have any real advantage of the extra memory.
Memory has nothing to do with speed. If you want to play modern games like Doom 3 with high quality textures, you want all the memory you can afford.
UNWANTED GUEST on 31/12/2005 at 21:09
Once again, Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond:thumb: . I really appreciate it - it makes my buying descision a lot easier.
Domarius on 5/1/2006 at 12:42
Quote Posted by UNWANTED GUEST
Things are worse!!!!!!!!!!!!.......
I did the right thing in that prior to purchasing the video card/chipset, I did research on my emachines' motherboard and found that my graphics chip is integrated, and I do not have a GLP(?) slot but only have a PCI slot. :grr:
Huuuhh???? When did you buy your motherboard??
I don't believe that a modern motherboard would come without an AGP slot.
Are you SURE it's a PCI, and not a PCIe? (PCI express) - PCIe was invented to superceed AGP, so all you have to do is hunt down the newer PCIe versions of these cards.
OrbWeaver on 5/1/2006 at 13:17
Quote Posted by Domarius
Huuuhh???? When did you buy your motherboard??
I don't believe that a modern motherboard would come without an AGP slot.
It's possible that the "business" machines (rather than "home" machines) would have integrated graphics and no AGP.
